'It's all too convenient': Questions over how police missed Berlin attack suspect's ID in truck for 24 hours - as it emerges far-right leader 'KNEW attacker was a Tunisian Muslim' hours after the atrocity

Lutz Bachmann said on Monday night he had been told attacker was Tunisian

Leader of far-right PEGIDA said information was from 'internal police source'

At the time, police had only revealed their arrest of a Pakistani asylum seeker

He was later released without charge having denied involvement in the attack

Some have also questioned the 'convenient' discovery of Tunisian suspect's ID

A far-right leader in Germany knew the suspect in the Christmas market attack was a Tunisian just two hours after the attack - despite police initially arresting a Pakistani man, it has emerged.

Lutz Bachmann, who fronts the anti-immigrant PEGIDA group, tweeted on Monday night that he had 'internal police information' about the nationality of the lorry driver who murdered 12 revellers in Berlin.

At the time, police had announced the arrest of a Pakistani asylum seeker - it was only when he was released that Tunisian Anis Amri was publicly identified as the chief suspect.

It comes as conspiracy theories surfaced online questioning how police missed the suspect's ID in the truck for 24 hours.

Suspect: Amri made his way from Tunisia to Germany after entering Europe through Italy

A far-right leader in Germany knew the suspect in the Christmas market attack was a Tunisian just two hours after the attack - despite police initially arresting a Pakistani man, it has emerged

At the time, police had announced that their chief suspect was a Pakistani asylum seeker - it was only when he was released that they turned their attention to Tunisian Anis Amri

Lutz Bachmann, who fronts the anti-immigrant PEGIDA group, tweeted on Monday night that he had 'internal police information' about the nationality of the lorry driver who murdered 12 revellers in Berlin

When asked to explain how he knew this information, he wrote in a follow-up tweet: 'Just need the right connections and a whistleblower that is sick of the lies.'

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Controversial Bachmann tweeted his information on Monday night - before police officially confirmed that they were hunting a Tunisian suspect.

He wrote: 'Internal info from the police leadership: The attacker is a Tunisian Muslim.'

When asked to explain how he knew this information, he wrote in a follow-up tweet: 'Just need the right connections and a whistleblower that is sick of the lies.'

Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists have questioned the 'suspicious' discovery of the Berlin attack suspect's wallet in the lorry used to murder 12 people at a packed Christmas market.

German police named Anis Amri as the chief suspect in the attack after finding his ID - apparently abandoned by the asylum seeker in the footwell of the truck as he fled the scene.

Extreme measures to capture prime suspect

The €100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Anis Amri, the Tunisian prime suspect in Berlin's deadly truck attack, is a rarity in Europe.

Rewards in recent years have been offered over war crimes, a political assassination and a far-left group's assault on the US embassy in Athens.

One example is notorious Serbian war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, who eluded arrest for 16 years, saw his bounty go up to 10 million euros ($14 million at the time) before he was finally arrested in May 2011 to face trial in The Hague.

However, no-one cashed in on the reward, for the 'Butcher of Bosnia' was tracked down through intelligence work.

By contrast, in the United States the practice is well entrenched, going back to the Wild West days of Jesse James and Billy the Kid.

The highest reward ever offered by the FBI was $25 million for information leading to the capture of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, killed in a US Navy Seal raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

The United States last Friday matched that figure for the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, more than doubling the $10 million originally on his head to $25 million.

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Controversial Lutz Bachmann (pictured) tweeted his information on Monday night - two days before police officially confirmed that they were hunting a Tunisian suspect

Will the lorry killer strike again? Police and the security services are hunting the terrorist behind the Christmas market attack

Conspiracy theories surfaced online with some questioning the 'convenient' discovery of the suspect's wallet - 24 hours after police had first scoured the truck

Conspiracy theorists have questioned the 'suspicious' discovery of the Berlin attack suspect's wallet in the lorry used to murder 12 people at a packed Christmas market

The discovery of the wallet was only made 24 hours after police had originally scoured the cab for clues and after wasting precious time questioning the wrong suspect

Truck attacker was a troubled inmate in Italy

Italian authorities say the Tunisian fugitive in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack was a problem inmate when he was in Italy.

In all, Amri was held in six different prisons on Sicily, where he served three years for setting a fire at a refugee center and making threats, among other charges.

But Italy apparently recorded no signs that Amri was becoming radicalized to embrace extremist violence.

Amri reached Italy in 2011, along with tens of thousands of young Tunisian men who arrived by boat during the Arab Spring revolutions.

But the discovery was only made 24 hours after they had originally scoured the cab for clues and after wasting precious time questioning the wrong suspect - a Pakistani called Naved Baluch who had no blood on his clothes, no injuries and denied having anything to do with the bloodbath.

Conspiracy theories have since appeared online questioning the situation.

One wrote: 'Why would the driver of the truck that drove into the Berlin Christmas market leave his ID under the seat? Seems too convenient.'

Another said: 'It seems suspicious to me that Berlin truck driver that killed people would leave his wallet in the truck as he fled the scene.'

German police have been accused of a series of blunders in the investigation. They wasted valuable time having arrested the wrong man before realising the wallet of their chief suspect was in the truck.

German police have been accused of a series of blunders in the investigation. Pictures show the market from above

Mourning: A market worker looks at some of the tributes left at the scene of the atrocity

Police launched a series of raids yesterday morning amid reports four people have been arrested

The Christmas market reopened yesterday morning as the hunt for the attack suspect continued

Death toll could rise as the injured fight for their lives

Berlin's state government has said 12 people are still being treated for severe injuries after Monday night's truck attack on a Christmas market, and that an unspecified number of them are still in critical condition.

Another 14 people with less serious injuries were also still hospitalized, while 30 others have been discharged.

Twelve people were killed in the attack.

Berlin's state health ministry on Thursday raised the number of market attack victims treated in Berlin hospitals to 56, up from 48.

It said some victims had reached hospitals on their own after the attack.

They have also been accused of missing a number of opportunities after it emerged that Anis Amris, a lifelong criminal, should have been deported months ago.

The 24-year-old, who has a 100,000 euro reward on his head, was under the surveillance of German intelligence for several months following his arrival in the country in 2015.

He had been arrested three times this year and his asylum application was rejected, but deportation papers were never served and he disappeared.

The Tunisian radical was known to be a supporter of Islamic State and to have received weapons training.

He also tried to recruit an accomplice for a terror plot – which the authorities knew about – but still remained at large.

He was under investigation for planning a 'serious act of violence against the state' and counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about him last month.

Reports suggest intelligence services might have even lost track of Amri as recently as just a few weeks ago after he went underground.

The potentially fatal mistakes heaped further shame on the German security services, who wasted several hours questioning an innocent Pakistani asylum seeker in the aftermath of the truck rampage, which killed 12 shoppers and wounded 48.

Meanwhile, investigators say they have found fingerprints of the Tunisian suspect on the door of the truck that ploughed through the crowds on Monday night, according to reports in Germany.

The media did not name their source for the report about Amri's fingerprints and police declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Merkel hopes for 'quick arrest' of the Tunisian truck terror suspect

German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced hope Thursday that the prime suspect in Berlin's deadly truck attack would be caught quickly, after it emerged that the Tunisian rejected asylum seeker was a known jihadist.

In an act of defiance, Berliners flocked to the same Christmas market that witnessed the murder of 12 people on Monday, as it reopened for the first time in three days.

Just as Merkel praised the country for not succumbing to fear in the wake of the attack, she insisted that authorities would manage to track down the alleged assailant.

'I am certain we will meet this test we are facing,' she said, voicing confidence for a 'hopefully quick arrest'.

'In the past few days I have been very proud of how calmly most people reacted to the situation.'

Prosecutors have issued a Europe-wide wanted notice for 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri, offering a 100,000-euro ($104,000) reward for information leading to his arrest and warning he could be armed and dangerous.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the case against Amri was hardening, with his fingerprints found in the cab of the 40-tonne truck, as well as his temporary residence permit.

The articulated lorry rammed through the crowd late Monday, killing 12.

The twelfth victim, the hijacked truck's Polish driver, was found shot in the cab.

Berliners returned Thursday to the market at the central Breitscheid square, leaving a sea of flowers and candles for the victims and signs reading 'Love Not Hate'.